Blog

Our Work in Rwanda

Posted
on Oct 1, 2016

Dear friend and partner,

Greetings from Kigali, Rwanda!

In December 2015 we made our first visit to Rwanda to share the vision of holistic transformation ministry with pastors in the rural villages of Rwanda. At the time our staff traveled to several districts and met with several groups of pastors. They were excited to hear about the holistic ministry by Possibilities Africa (“PA”). As we have witnessed in many other villages in Kenya and Malawi the pastors in Rwanda said this is the first time someone is reaching out to them with a message of holistic transformation.

In April 2016 we brought together 30 pastors (one from each of the 30 districts of Rwanda) in the city of Kigali to teach them about the PA vision and how it would help them, their churches and communities. Each of these leaders felt connected to the mission and approach of our work. We then sent them back to their communities to recruit and share this vision with between 5 to 10 other pastors from their areas. Over the past 4 months we have worked through a part-time staff in Rwanda to remain engaged with these leaders and prepare them for further engagement with PA.

Last month I traveled to 9 of the districts of Rwanda where I met with several pastors who represented their colleagues from 18 districts. This was a time to affirm our interest to work with them and an opportunity to answer any questions they may still have about PA before we initiate our training. It was also a time for me to visit some of the pastors in their villages and to see first hand their livelihoods and ministries. The ministry of Possibilities Africa succeeds by building relationships with the pastors, on meeting with the people where they are, and on teaching, training, encouraging, inspiring, and modelling for the leaders what transformational leadership looks like. I wanted to provide these values to the pastors we have recruited as we launch our activities in this country.I can now affirm and confirm that our initial recruitment stage in Rwanda is successfully completed. All the 30 districts have at least 6 pastors who are excited, interested, and impatiently waiting for us to begin rolling out our work with them. All those I met this week pleaded with us that we start training them this year and wait no longer.

Therefore, as a way forward we have split the Rwanda group into 2 cohorts for easy management. We have determined to begin training the first group of 108 pastors from the 18 districts in the week of 31st October – 5th November, 2016. This is a step of faith on our part as we had not initially anticipated starting training in 2017 and hence we don’t have funds budgeted towards this new development. The vision casting and organizing has taken a shorter time than we anticipated. We are now believing that God will raise $21,600 (or $200 per pastor) to fund this training this year. The money will pay for the training facilities and materials, and also pay for travel and accommodation of the PA training team from Kenya. Training for the second group from 13 districts will begin in the first 3 months of 2017.

We also need to recruit at least 2 staff members to help manage and coordinate the work in Rwanda which has now started in earnest. We have identified 2 potential staff and we are praying to raise $18,000 to support their salary for the next one year.

Thank you for supporting and helping us serve these pastors and for bringing hope to African communities within the season God has given to us.